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Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month is a period for the duration of the month of May in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. This month, I challenge you to #readAsianauthors and then to keep doing it, because these authors are amazing. These are just a few of my favorite books representing Asian authors, culture, and history.
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Have you ever wanted to learn coding? This big fat notebook has it all!  I was so excited to receive the newest installment of the Big Fat Notebook STEM series! It did not disappoint! The Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook is an essential companion to the already released Math and Science books. With key concepts explained through simple but powerful ways such as mnemonic devices, definitions, diagrams, and doodles, Computer Science and Coding helps us understand computer science in a non-threatening way, which is especially crucial in middle school. This is the first book for a middle school audience that covers both computer science and coding, which are basic skills our Future Ready students need to know. Our students will graduate into a society with jobs that do not currently exist. Learning computer science and coding can seem daunting at first, but this book helps students adapt to and create these new digital literacies like collaboration, logical reasoning, problem solving skills, and perseverance. My daughter, a tween herself, and I both read this before the official release date and we both were able to learn something new! For me, it taught me valuable ways to explain coding to my middle schoolers and for my daughter, it made learning coding elements even more fun. Combining this book with our homeschool curriculum with code.org has made for some amazing learning experiences! From the perspective as a mom and school media specialist, one of my favorite aspects of this book is that it models to our youth how to effectively write and organize notes on their own and engages our middle school students with its' 'note-writing' format. As a school library media specialist and a leader in the MakerSpace movement in our learning community, I truly believe every library should have this book on our shelves for students. What's included in this book?
If using this book in the classroom, it will help you meet Computer Science Standards, Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Grant Smith, the author of Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook is a computer science guru and is the VP of Education for Code Ninjas, the largest growing coding franchise for kids. He has helped write curriculum for Girl Scouts, codeSpark, code.org, and the Computer Science Teachers Association. This post has been sponsored by Workman Publishing, but all opinions are mine alone. Check out the awesome graphics and color coding below! 
2019-2020 as an amazing school year! We...
In addition to the library programming, I was also able to meet some pretty exciting professional goals:
I truly believe setting goals and keeping track of progress has helped me achieve so many of my goals for 2019-2020. Going into the summer and planning for , I am reminding myself of the goals I set for our library at the beginning of the year, but I think I am going to narrow down my focus to three important wedges of the Future Ready Librarian Framework.
On a more personal note, one of my goals this year is to read even more. By reading more, I am able to provide more accurate reader's advisory and help our teachers more. My goal this year is 40 books other than picture books! I track my progress on Goodreads.
Here is my complete reflection from this school year in regards to Future Ready Librarianship and ISTE Standards:
Earth Day is one of my favorite times for programming! It's a fantastic time to focus on climate change, connect with experts, and connect with other classrooms on projects to make the world a better place. Usually, I would have Skype-a-Scientists lined up for the week, collaborations going on with teachers on research skills with climate change, and our MakerSpace challenges set up in centers, but remote learning has paused those activities until next year. In the mean time, here are some awesome activities you can do from HOME!
MakerSpace & STEM Challenges for Earth Day
Wonderopolis Article - Earth Day Research
I love Wonderopolis! I've been using it for years to teach information literacy and inquiry-based learning. With our move to remote learning, I finally took one of my graphic organizers for this activity and made it virtual using Google Slides. Find the template here.
Wonderopolis is perfect for studying aspects of Earth Day. Check out the wonders below:
There are tons of articles on Earth, biomes, animals, and more as well.
Book Suggestions
Earth Day Hyperdoc Scavenger Hunt
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Martha BongiornoMS Librarian | @glma 
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